Shapkin, Timofei Timofeevich

Born Feb. 21 (Mar. 5), 1885, at the khutor (farmstead) of Semimaiachnyi, in the stanitsa (large cossack village) of Verkhnekondruchenskaia, in what is now Rostov Oblast; died Mar. 22, 1943, in Rostov-on-Don. Soviet military figure. Lieutenant general (1940). Member of the CPSU from 1938.

The son of a Don Cossack, Shapkin fought in World War I. He graduated from the Novocherkassk Military School in 1916. During the Civil War of 1918–20, Shapkin served in General Deni-kin’s White Guards as commander of a sotnia (squadron) of the 6th Don Cossack Regiment. After joining the Red Army in March 1920, he served as commander of a cavalry troop, a regiment, and a brigade and, in 1921, assumed command of the 14th Cavalry Division. Shapkin graduated from the Advanced Academic Courses in 1922 and the M. V. Frunze Military Academy in 1935.

Shapkin commanded a cavalry division from 1922 to 1924, after which he served as a cavalry inspector in the Western Siberia Military District, commander of the 7th Separate Turkestan Brigade, and commander of the 20th Cavalry Division. In 1941 he became commander of the IV Cavalry Corps. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–15, from September 1942, he served in that post on the Transcaucasian, Stalingrad, and Southern Fronts. Shapkin was awarded four Orders of the Red Banner for distinction in battle during the Civil War and against the Basma-chi in 1930, as well as an Order of Kutuzov Second Class.